by Jaime Rush
She tried to wrench it off, but it grew spikes that lanced her hands. Blood dripped from her palms and fingers when she jerked them back. She had to get this thing off her. Its fangs pierced through her scales and into her muscle, close to the kill spot Cyn had described. Pain shot from the puncture right up to her head. She thrashed, smashing it against the wall again and again until the leech fell onto her dresser. It leaped to the chair. She banged her fist down on it, cracking the chair but missing the demon that had jumped away.
“What, no more giggling?” she asked. Her reflection in the mirror showed a trickle of blood down her neck.
“No, now you’re just pissing me off.”
Fergus darted forward and took a nip before the demon could spin around to face it. While they sparred, she crept up behind Selwig and lunged. It morphed into a dragon, nearly as big as her.
What the hell?
Well, of course, if it could look like a cat, it could look like her. Exactly like her, other than the white eyes. It rushed forward and rammed right into her, sending her tripping over the broken chair and onto the floor. It lunged down toward her, and she snapped at its snout with her fangs, drawing blood. Selwig jumped up and landed on top of her before she could move in the crowded space. It now had the weight of a dragon, nearly cracking her ribs. She threw it off, sending it crashing into the dresser. Pain rocketed through her body as she tried to get up.
Hunter/Prey. She needed to get the demon off guard. Fergus waylaid Selwig, then paid the price by being tossed across the room. Ruby remained on the floor and tried to look terrified.
Selwig came close, eyeing her throat. “Well, dearie, this has been fun, but it’s time for me to end this dance.” The demon flexed its fingers, readying its sharp claws to finish her off.
“No,” she pleaded. “Please.”
The moment it leaned close, she clamped her mouth around its neck. Her fangs sank through skin, muscle, then crushed bones. Black blood squirted. Selwig screamed in agony. Its body sagged and then it evaporated in a puff of dust. She jerked upright and searched the floor. Nothing remained to re-form into anything else.
Fergus jumped up and down and made happy sounds. Before she could even sigh in relief, magick prickled through her. She whipped around to the doorway of her ruined room, feeling the spikes on her back rise.
Cyn stood there, feet spread, body rigid, as though ready to Catalyze. But he was very human. He slowly clapped his hands together. “Very nice. My student has learned well.”
She remained Dragon, adrenaline coursing through her, hoping to use it to intimidate him into going away. Of course, he didn’t. She thrust her head at him, snarling, nudging him hard enough that he had to take a step back to keep his balance.
He didn’t look the least bit intimidated. In fact, he reached out and stroked her cheek, as though she were a horse. Damn it, her Dragon purred, leaning into his touch.
Ruby Catalyzed to human and changed into the first shirt and pants she could find in the debris. “How did you know I wasn’t really injured?”
“I could sense your energy. You looked afraid, but you felt pissed off.”
“It’s disturbing that you can feel me like that.” She narrowed her eyes. “I thought this was over!”
His tight, stretchy shirt molded to his chest as he lifted his hand to the room. “It’s not, as you can see.”
“But why? How? We killed Darren, and Magda can’t summon demons.”
“We assumed that Darren was the mastermind. But something didn’t feel right. I went to Fernandez, my former boss, and asked for Mr. Smith’s description. Not Darren. So it appears that we’re stuck with each other for a while longer.”
“But I handled the demon all by myself.”
“You did indeed. It was gratifying to watch.” The embers in his eyes flickered. “Deeply satisfying, in fact.” He blinked, dousing the embers. “Unfortunately, when this one doesn’t report back, Smith may send more. You’re not equipped to handle more than one yet. We do this together, just as Brom’s prophecy says.”
With an impatient huff, she stepped over the broken pieces of her chair and pictures on the way to the living room. The demon had been through her things, moving pillows and even the coffee table. She found Brom’s book in a different place than where she’d left it and opened it to the latest entry. “There’s a new picture. Oh, great, a big monster with three heads. So that part of Mon’s story wasn’t his literary license.”
Cyn leaned over her shoulder. “And both of us fighting it.”
His heat called to her Dragon, drawing her to lean back against him. Stop it! Bad Dragon.
She felt it snort, a really odd sensation.
Want.
The worst part was she wasn’t sure if that last sentiment was hers or her Dragon’s. She snapped the book shut and shoved it into her bag. “What kind of monster is that? Another tulpa?”
He was right behind her, his feet light on the stairs as they went down. “Nothing I’ve ever seen. I suppose a Deuce could make a tulpa that looked like that though.”
They approached the fence, and Ruby grabbed the lock, which was still intact. “How did you get in? And how did you know a demon was here?”
“I climbed over.” He showed her the scrapes on his hands from the barbed wire coils at the top of the fence. “As soon as I discovered that Mr. Smith is still out there, I knew he’d be targeting you again.”
She relocked the gate once they’d passed through. “Just because I’m going with you doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you.”
“Understood.”
She slung her bag in the trunk he opened for her.
“More bad news,” he said as they pulled onto the road. “The Deus Vis is still fracturing. Whatever is causing it wasn’t in that lab. It’s beginning to hit Crescents hard. How are you feeling?”
God, it really wasn’t over at all. Panic squeezed her throat. “I’m tired and achy.”
“Like the flu?”
“Like I’ve got demons and tulpas trying to kill me.” And a Dragon tearing up my heart. “I figured it was everything I’ve been through lately.” She remembered the images Brom had flashed into their minds. “People are still going to die.”
“Yes.”
“Kids. Grandmothers. Us. What about the Elementals?”
“They don’t require Deus Vis to survive.”
She felt some relief, but it was small consolation. “What do we do? How do we stop it?”
His cell phone rang. “Fernandez,” he said to her and answered it. She couldn’t hear what the man was saying. “No,” Cyn said, glancing at her. “Okay, I’ll be right there.” He disconnected. “He says he knows what’s going on.”
“Could he be in on it?”
“I considered that when I went to see him this morning, but I doubt it. I’ve told him very little, for his protection and ours. As in any large agency, there’s the possibility of corruption at the upper levels.”
He took an on-ramp and merged with the flow of traffic on the interstate. “I’m meeting Fernandez at my house.”
A short while later, he took an exit leading to southeast Coral Gables. “Hungry?”
“Famished.”
He pulled into the parking lot of a small café. “This is one of my favorite places. Spanish food.”
She got out, and the scent of garlic and tomatoes wafting through the air unleashed a growl from her stomach.
“Mr. Valeron, good to see you,” the host said when they walked inside, giving her a nod, too. “Welcome.” He had olive skin and dark hair like Cyn, and his eyes flickered in the Dragon way.
The place was quaint. Murals depicted cozy scenes with what she guessed were Spanish homes and balconies.
Cyn ordered for them, which would have been annoying except she didn’t know what some of the dishes on the menu were. An array of plates were delivered soon after, including one filled with baby octopi. Ugh. The array was colorful though. She ate the things she recognized,
olives and cheese, chorizo sausage, and slices of beef.
“Ruby, remember how I’m an arrogant ass and want you to obey me?”
The olive she was chewing went down like a rock. “Yeah…”
“I don’t want you coming in with me. I’d like to say I trust Fernandez. He and his wife raised me after I was orphaned. That’s the way being a Ward worked in the old days, if you had no family to take you in.”
She didn’t want to know about how he’d lost his parents, how he had no family. “But?”
“I can’t completely trust him.”
“So I’m hiding in the car?”
“No, I want you nearby so you know what’s going on. We’ll walk through the neighbor’s yard. They’re up north for the summer, so the house is closed up. I’ve got a boat off the side dock. Duck down there. Ready?”
“As I ever will be.”
He stood and dropped some bills on the table. Once outside, he walked to the passenger side and peered into the car first. “Rule of thumb when being hunted by demons: always check your vehicle before you get in. Not a bad idea anyway. Miami has its share of ghouls of the Hidden and the Mundane variety.”
He was still teaching her. It should annoy her, but somehow it had the opposite effect. Their gazes locked, and that sexuality curled through her. She could feel the heat of the sun on her back, and his heat from where he stood inches in front of her. “Cyn…”
She tried to dredge up something angry or cold, anything to put distance between them. All she felt was a draw to him, even knowing what he’d done. She ached to feel his hand on her, even just to brush a strand of hair from her temple.
“Ruby, don’t look at me like that. Because it makes me want to do this.” He did touch her, stroking his fingers along her jawline.
She batted his hand away. “Damn it, we aren’t supposed to be here again. Together. Feeling like this. You were supposed to be—” She cut off the words.
“Feeling the ache of you turning your back on me?”
“Yes, I wanted you to feel even a fraction of what you caused me to feel. But you can’t feel, can you? That’s what you said, anyway. Tell me I was only a moral obligation to you. A few moments of lust.” She lifted her chin.
“You like to hear the raw truth, don’t you, Ruby?” As though he’d read her mind, or maybe her energy, he did brush a stray strand of hair from her forehead, trailing his fingers across her brow. “Are you sure you want to hear it this time?”
“Yes.” She braced herself for his cold, harsh words.
“Watching you Awaken woke up a part of myself I didn’t know existed. It was more than you growing into your Dragon’s sensuality. It was how your spirit touched me so deeply that I could not stop myself from wanting you. I told myself it was just sexual attraction. But when you told me I was the first man you wanted to give your heart to, I realized what’s between us was much more. And that I wanted you more than anything I’ve wanted in a long, long time. The only way I could keep from violating my moral code was to tell you the truth. Watching you walk away cut so deep, hurt so much, I actually looked for blood on my shirt. Now I feel such a deep emptiness, it’s like my insides have been sucked out. Does that fill your need for revenge?”
She swayed, forcing herself to breathe. Every word had twisted so tight around her heart, lungs, her entire body. She felt the truth in words filled with pain, saw it in his eyes. Her voice sounded hollow when she said, “That should do it.”
He opened the door for her and said, “Let’s see what Fernandez has to say. Maybe we can finish this now, and you can walk away again.”
Chapter 20
Ruby was glad for the silence in the car as Cyn turned onto his street. She was waiting for the satisfaction over his admission. It should be coming any second now. But it didn’t, because she was suffering, too, though she’d die before admitting it.
What astounded her was that he didn’t appear to be in pain. He could mask it so well. What else did he hide from her? From himself, for that matter?
He parked in the driveway next door and killed the engine. “I want to get you into a hiding spot before I meet Fernandez. Mr. Smith could be watching.”
He led her around orange and grapefruit trees to the ocean that sparkled in the midday sun. “We’re going to climb down there and take that ledge over to my dock.”
The ledge was made of broken concrete close to where waves splashed. Bracing himself on the edge of the seawall, Cyn stepped down and gained his balance, then looked at her. She followed suit, mirroring his movements as he scooted along the ledge, hidden by the seawall to anyone who might be lurking around Cyn’s house. His property was on a point, the dock on the side that faced across the canal to another house. The other side looked out to open ocean. She eschewed his offered hand and stepped onto the dock, crouching down as he did.
“Wait for me to get you. If there’s trouble, you’ll have to determine whether it’s better to get involved or stay hidden. For instance, if I’m killed straight out, there’s no point in jumping in. You’ll only die, too, because if someone gets the best of me, you have no chance.” He took his phone from his back pocket and placed it in her hand. “If that happens, wait until they leave and find Kade. Or Grayson.”
She put her hand to her chest as she watched him head back to the car. The thought of his dying made her heart hurt. It was only fear of being on her own, right?
It seemed like forever before she heard his voice, carried on the breeze. “We’re safe to talk out here. My neighbors are gone for the summer. Lately I don’t like being in closed spaces.”
Ruby dared peek just above the wall. The other man was dark-haired, too, but shorter and stockier. Cyn positioned himself so that the man’s back was to her. His gaze flicked to her before focusing on Fernandez again. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Smith came to see me again. He said you’re harboring a woman who has been trying to sabotage his efforts to save as many people as possible from the Deus Vis fluctuations.”
“It’s not the fluctuations that are threatening us. It’s that our life force is actually breaking up. I’ll bet he didn’t tell you that he’s causing the fracturing. Brom Winston saw the devastation his project would cause. That’s why Justin sabotaged the project, and why he was executed.”
Fernandez shook his head. “Mr. Smith told me how he hired Justin to come up with portable Deus Vis so Crescents could leave the Field. How the device he engineered exacerbated the fluctuations of the solar storms that were hitting at the time. And yes, Brom did warn him, but Justin ignored those warnings. When Mr. Smith talked of shutting the project down, Justin took all of his research and the device and went on the run to continue his experiments. That’s why he was terminated.”
Fernandez clearly believed the story Mr. Smith had fed him. But Ruby didn’t.
Cyn didn’t either by the hard edge to his next question. “So why are we experiencing this extreme disruption now? Did he have an answer to that?”
“It’s a huge solar storm. You’ve heard it on the news, physicist Michio Kaku talking about the way it might affect electricity and satellites. It will affect Crescents in more devastating ways. Mr. Smith has a device that holds Deus Vis and will feed a select number of Crescents the energy we need. The woman is trying to destroy this device. We’ll all die.” Fernandez’s words grew raw with emotion. “Celia is already ill, as you know. Those who are weakened are feeling it first.”
“Who chooses the ones that benefit from this supposed device?”
“The Chosen are based on their value to Crescent society. My wife, I, and you, Cyn, we’ll all get the energy. But only if you turn over this woman to my custody.”
“And you trust a man who won’t even tell you his name?”
Fernandez nodded with conviction. “I’ve seen the device revive my flagging secretary.”
Ruby went cold. She was a bargaining chip. Cyn lived if she was taken into custody. She knew he’d never hand her over.
“I’m not turning her over.”
Fernandez’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, Cyn. I can’t let my wife die.”
Ruby tensed, ready to come out and fight. Especially when a man stepped out from the hedges. He looked to be in his sixties with a trim beard and expensive-looking clothing. She held her position because she didn’t see any weapons or demons. In fact, his hands were held at his sides in almost a surrender style.
“Cyntag Valeron,” he said in a strong voice. “We meet at last.”
“We haven’t met, since I don’t know your name.” Cyn, always smooth and in control. His body language, though, was poised for action. His hand flexed behind him, a message to stay put.
“I mean you no harm. You or the girl.”
“Those demons weren’t exactly benign messengers.”
“My son, Darren, went overboard. I didn’t know he’d gone to such extremes. I am Purcell, by the way.”
He was Darren’s father?
“Listen to your former mentor, Cyntag. What would I have to gain by causing the death of so many Crescents? Do I look like a diabolical mass murderer? I am, in fact, a savior. While the Mundanes have been preparing to protect power grids and global communications satellites, the private lab I’ve been funding has invested years of research to figure out how to protect Crescents. The problem is that there are just too many. When the coronal mass ejection arrives, many will lose their connection to the Deus Vis and their essence will wither. And they will die.”
“Why not warn the population?” Cyn asked. “They could leave the Field for a time. Surely the fluctuation will not last for more than two weeks.”
“First, how would we get all of this across in a secretive manner? Then, can you imagine the panic that would ensue? It’s unfortunate that many will die. You remember during the Cold War when a nuclear attack seemed imminent? The U.S. government built fallout shelters for their high-ranking officials. It’s logical to protect those who can rebuild society. I am willing to ensure that you and yours are included in the Chosen. But you must give me something in return.”